There is widespread coverage of the latest failure of talks to agree the world’s first legally binding treaty to tackle plastic pollution. As 10 days of talks in Geneva came to a close on Friday, delegates failed to reach consensus, reports Reuters, with diplomats “voicing disappointment and even rage” that they had not produced a deal. Ecuador’s Luis Vayas Valdivieso, the chair of the negotiating committee, wrote and presented two drafts of treaty text during the talks, reports the Guardian, but “representatives from 184 countries rejected both as a basis for their negotiations”. It adds: “Saudi Arabia said both drafts lacked balance and Saudi and Kuwaiti negotiators suggested the latest proposal, presented in the early hours of Friday, took other states’ views more into account. It addressed plastic production, which they considered to be outside the scope of the treaty.”

The “collapse” of the talks is the “latest setback in discussions”, notes Politico: “After nearly three years of deliberations, it was meant to be the final round of negotiations after previous talks in Busan, South Korea also failed to yield a deal.” It adds: “At the time of writing, the chair presiding over the talks…had not indicated when, where or how a future round of negotiations would be held.” The US “showed up in force” to the talks, notes the Washington Post, “opposing the production limits that many other nations saw as the main solution”. The newspaper says that this position was “just one of the many factors that helped sink the talks”, adding that it “put the US in step with the likes of Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Russia – and in opposition to many African nations, Caribbean and Pacific islands, as well as the European Union”. There is further coverage in the Associated Press, New York Times, Financial Times, Climate Home News, Euronews, Press Association, BusinessGreen, Inside Climate News and Daily Mail.

Spanish prime minister Pedro Sánchez has said that his country’s wildfires have triggered the largest ever deployment of the European Union firefighting force, reports the Financial Times in a frontpage story. Following a heatwave that started more than 12 days ago, there are now 19 high-risk active fires burning across Spain, the newspaper says – with the northern front of a fire in Extremadura that was advancing towards Castile and León being described by local officials as “out of control”. It quotes Sánchez saying yesterday: “The clear answer to having fires of this magnitude now…is that the climate emergency ravaging the world is accelerating, becoming more serious and more frequent, especially in places like the Iberian peninsula.” The article adds: “Southern Europe is experiencing one of its worst wildfire seasons on record, with Greece, Turkey, France, Slovakia and the Balkan nations continuing to battle blazes that have coincided with repeated heatwaves.” 

The Associated Press notes that Spain is deploying a further 500 troops to tackle the fires – adding to the 1,400 already on duty. According to Bloomberg, Sánchez also said he is going to “propose a big nationwide pact for the mitigation and adaptation to the climate emergency”. He described it as “a pact that should leave the climate emergency out of political fighting” and should be based on science, the outlet notes. There is further coverage of the fires in the Times, Sun and Reuters. 

MORE ON EUROPE

• A record number of electric cars were registered in western Europe between April and June, reports the Guardian

There is continuing coverage of the flash flooding triggered by monsoon rains in northern Pakistan, where the death toll has risen to more than 340 people, Agence France-Presse reports. Around 2,000 rescuers were “struggling to retrieve bodies from debris”, the newswire says, with many of the deaths caused by collapsing houses. The majority of deaths were reported in mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, the article notes, “including 15 women and 13 children”. Another five people, including two pilots, were killed when a local government helicopter crashed due to bad weather during a relief mission on Friday, it adds. Pakistan has received higher-than-normal monsoon rainfall this year, says the Associated Press, which “experts link to climate change”. It quoted an eyewitness describing seeing floodwaters carrying hundreds of boulders and “tons of rocks” crashing down. 

Pakistan’s National Disaster Management Authority has warned that the country is expected to face increased rainfall this month, raising the risk of further flooding and landslides, says Bloomberg. The South China Morning Post looks at whether climate change is turning the Himalayas “into a disaster zone”. There is additional coverage in the Daily Telegraph (on its frontpage), BBC News and Deutsche Welle, while the Associated Press has an explainer on the “cloudbursts” that are “causing chaos in parts of India and Pakistan”.

In a widely expected decision, the US treasury department issued guidance on Friday “that narrows which wind and solar energy projects can receive the remaining tax credits that were largely eliminated under the Republicans’ ‘big, beautiful bill’”, reports the Hill. That bill ends the credits for projects that begin producing electricity from 2028, but it contains an exemption for projects that begin construction over the next year, the outlet explains. The new guidance adds further restrictions, including requiring “continuous” construction work and defining the start of a project as “physical work of a significant nature”, the article notes. Despite criticism from the renewable energy industry, Inside Climate News says that “some industry analysts believed renewables dodged a bullet” as developers will still get four years to complete their credit-eligible projects. E&E News also has the story.

Meanwhile, the US government said on Friday it had sued California to stop the state from enforcing “stringent” emissions standards for heavy-duty trucks that president Donald Trump recently declared void, Reuters reports. It adds: “The justice department sued after a House of Representatives committee said it recently learned that staff at the California Air Resources Board won’t let auto manufacturers bring vehicles to market unless they comply with California’s preempted standards. These include the Clean Truck Partnership, a 2023 initiative with manufacturers designed to advance California’s goal of lowering emissions, while giving the truckmaking industry flexibility to meet emissions requirements.” The Hill, Wall Street Journal and Axios also have the story.

MORE ON THE US

• Environmental groups have filed a lawsuit alleging the Department of Energy broke federal law by “secretly” recruiting “five handpicked sceptics” to author the department’s recent climate change report, reports the New York Times. [A Carbon Brief factcheck of the report found more than 100 false or misleading statements.]
• The New York Times reports on how environmental groups face “generational” setbacks under the Trump administration.
• Analysis shows that Republican lawmakers who voted for Donald Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” have accepted more than $105m in political donations from the fossil fuel industry, reports the Guardian.
• According to NPR, US electricity prices in Florida are rising more than twice as fast as inflation, driven by “power-hungry data centres” and the “soaring price of natural gas”. It quotes one expert saying clean energy is “the way” to cut prices.
• The Guardian also reports on how farmers in the US midwest are being “squeezed” by Trump’s tariffs and climate change.
• The New York Times reports on how wildfire fighting crews are “getting sick and dying” because of inadequate protection from smoke.

In a frontpage story, the Financial Times reports that solar power generation in Britain so far this year has already surpassed the total for 2024. Using data from the University of Sheffield, the newspaper finds that “some 14.08 terawatt hours of electricity was produced from solar in Great Britain by 16 August, about one-third higher than at this time last year”. This was achieved through a “powerful combination of very sunny weather and record capacity on the system”, Josie Murdoch, policy analyst at energy thinktank Ember, tells the newspaper. The article notes that the UK government has “unveiled a number of policies to encourage further investment” in solar power, including “changes to planning law [that] will allow mid-sized projects of 50-100 megawatts capacity to be approved at local rather than national level”.

Meanwhile, the Times reports on its frontpage that UK chancellor Rachel Reeves is “preparing to strip back environmental protections in an effort to boost the economy by speeding up infrastructure projects”. The Treasury has begun preparing for another planning reform bill, the newspaper says, after Reeves voiced “frustration that the interests of ‘bats and newts’ are being allowed to stymie critical infrastructure”. The Treasury is also “racing to find tax reforms to boost UK growth”, reports the Financial Times in another frontpage story. Speaking to the newspaper, an analyst from the Institute for Fiscal Studies thinktank highlights “potential changes to road pricing that aim to reduce growth-sapping congestion in towns and on motorways, as well as shifting to a more uniform carbon-pricing regime”. 

MORE ON THE UK

• The UK is on track for its sunniest and hottest year on record, says the Times.
• In a Guardian “Sunday read”, environmental reporter Helena Horton asks: “How can England possibly be running out of water?”
• The Daily Mirror reports on criticisms that UK firefighters are tackling wildfires driven by rising temperatures, despite a lack of resources after “14 years of austerity”.
• The UK’s insulation standards “intended to keep homes warm in winter mean residents swelter in summer”, says the Times. 
• The farming body NFU Scotland has warned that growing cereal crops in Scotland has become increasingly “unpredictable and difficult”, reports BBC News.
• The Times reports that Scotland is attempting to lure “heatwave-weary Europeans” for “coolcations”.

China’s thermal power generation, mostly from coal, increased by 4.3% in July to the “highest level” since August 2024, reaching 602,000 gigawatt-hours (GWh), according to data from China’s National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), Reuters reports. The increase was driven by “record-breaking heat” raising demand, the newswire continues. However, the country’s fossil-fuelled power use is “trending downwards this year compared to 2024, on track to potentially decline for the first time in a decade”, it adds. NBS’ data also shows that coal production in July fell to the lowest level since April 2024, says another Reuters story. Bloomberg’s coverage adds that steel output also dropped 4% in July – to the lowest level this year and marking a third consecutive monthly fall – as “bad weather affected operations and the government’s efforts to rein in overcapacity intensified”.

MORE ON CHINA

• The NBS cited the “impact of ‘extreme weather’ in July, including high temperatures and flooding”, as a reason behind the sluggish economy, reports the Financial Times.
• In an article for Xi Jinping’s Thought on Economy, a state-owned journal dedicated to the top leader, NDRC director Zheng Shanjie comments on sustainable economic development – commonly known as the “two mountains” theory.
• Huang Runqiu, head of MEE, tells People’s Daily that “carbon reduction, pollution reduction, green expansion, and [economic] growth” are “closely related”.
• A comment by Bloomberg columnist David Fickling discusses how drought threatens China’s $167bn Yarlung Tsangpo dam project.
• Southern China’s Guangdong province has become the first in China to recognise “carbon quotas” as “legal collateral for loans”, Yicai reports.
• Quoting state news agency Xinhua, Reuters reports that at least 10 people died in a flash flood in northern China on Saturday evening, with two others still missing.

The UK’s bioethanol industry was “dealt what appeared to be a final blow” on Friday, says the Financial Times, “after the government rejected a bailout for the sector”. According to “people familiar with the situation”, Vivergo Fuels, the bioethanol business owned by Associated British Foods (AB Foods), “will almost certainly close as a result of the decision” by business secretary Jonathan Reynolds, the newspaper says. The UK’s two remaining major bioethanol plants were “hit hard by a trade deal with the US”, the article explains, “which cut tariffs for imports from the US as part of a wider agreement to reduce American tariffs on British exports of cars, steel, aerospace and other products”. Vivergo in Hull will begin closing down operations today, BBC News says. It quotes AB Foods as saying the government had “thrown away billions in potential growth in the Humber, a sovereign capability in clean fuels that had the chance to lead the world”. The Guardian, Times, Politico, Sky News and Reuters all have the story, while the Sunday Times has a feature on how the trade deal with the US has brought the bioethanol industry “to its knees”.

MORE ON UK

• The UK’s chemical sector has been “branded” as “very high risk” by a leading credit insurer because of high energy costs, reports the Daily Telegraph.
• The Sunday Telegraph looks into why “sustainable aviation fuel” has “failed to take off” in the UK.
• The Daily Mail and Daily Telegraph criticise energy secretary Ed Miliband for not disclosing details about his air travel within the UK, since he entered office last July.
• Ben Houchen, the Conservative life peer and mayor of Tees Valley, has warned the government that high energy costs are threatening the regeneration of former industrial heartlands, the Daily Express reports.

Responding to the collapse of talks for a global treaty on plastics pollution, the Guardian says those who blocked the deal have “failed the next generation”. It continues: “It is deeply disappointing that no agreement could be reached, and that none lies in sight, though perhaps not surprising, especially when diplomacy and multilateralism are struggling more generally. Many of those attending concluded that no deal was better than a weak one which might allow the pressure for real change to dissipate. They will continue their push, though not necessarily through the same mechanism, given this second failure. Some think another UN forum might be more successful.” A second Guardian editorial focuses on the threats to the French wine industry, noting that “part of the problem is the climate crisis”. It says: “Adaptation, in the form of hardier grapes and greater crop diversity, feels unavoidable.”

Elsewhere, there is reaction to reports that UK deputy prime minister Angela Rayner had previously called for people to have the right to stop work during a heatwave. Guardian columnist John Harris writes that, while other European countries have “working regulations built around clear temperature limits”, the UK offers a “mess of half-measures and mere recommendations”. Sean O’Grady, associate editor of the Independent, writes that climate change presents “new challenges and requires some new thinking, drawing on the experiences of countries that have long since had to adapt to the summer torpor”. Times contributor Robert Crampton is less keen, arguing that it “will cause us all no end of problems”.

MORE UK COMMENT

• The Financial Times Lex column looks at how “AI might save more energy than it soaks up”.
• A Times editorial reflects on how the UK is “expecting a bumper crop of visitors from the heat-stricken European mainland this year”.
• Ben Cooke, staff writer at the Times, looks at the options as “idle windfarms, a lack of batteries and protests by nimbys are hampering Britain’s clean energy drive”.
• A Sunday Times editorial asks whether octopuses “deserve better than to be sliced up for salads”, as warmer waters bring them to UK shores in greater numbers. 
• The net-zero sceptic Daily Telegraph publishes comment articles on supplementing the pensions of retired British Coal staff and the “nuclear cowboys slashing safety regulation”. It also carries an article by Richard Tice, the climate-sceptic deputy leader of the hard-right Reform party, on the “net-zero delusion”.

This edition of the Daily Briefing was written by Robert McSweeney, with contributions from Henry Zhang and Wanyuan Song. It was edited by Simon Evans.

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